Dodona Update
Zip Dobyns
This is mostly a Zip update since 1994 turned into a traveling year so I haven’t had much time to enjoy our retreat center. The primary Church news, as was reported earlier, has been the initiation of three new centers by newly ordained ministers; one in San Diego, another near San Diego, and our first out-of-state center in Roanoke, VA. I will probably be teaching an astrology seminar at the Roanoke center in late October. If any of our east coast readers are interested, please write to Barbara Taylor, 1832 Deyerle Road SW, Roanoke, VA 24018.
Though I love living in Dodona where I can swim every day, I do also enjoy traveling. My only real concern when I am away from Dodona is the new little fruit trees I planted in our first year there. Drought is back in much of the west, bringing widespread forest fires though there have not been any close to us. Flying home from Montana in mid-August, the widespread smoke pall was visible from the plane. I hope that my young trees survive. I keep thinking I will get more facts on the “rain-making” techniques pioneered by Reich, or learn to use mind-power to bring rain as well as to maintain a healthy body.
One of my summer indulgences was a week cruise out of L.A. in exchange for doing “mini readings” for the passengers. One cannot do much in the limited five to ten minutes per person, but occasionally there are fun interchanges. A pair of psychologists, father and daughter, had never seen “real” astrology and they were very impressed with the amount that could be said about their basic character. I use Mark’s notebook computer, put the chart on the screen (using noon if the time of birth is not known), and discuss the basic themes in the chart, ending with a few words about coming transits of the outer planets.
After a brief three days at home which included a workshop on the millennium for ACS, I flew off to Woodstock, NY to do the Millennium Marathon that was dreamed up by Julienne Mullette, the founder of ISAR. In company with Julie, Axel Harvey from Canada, Dorothy Oja, Jeanne Mosier, Jacob Schwartz, all fellow astrologers, and Richard Mogey who is director of the Foundation for the Study of Cycles, we discussed our various ideas of what the millennium might mean for the world. We recorded 14 two-hour videotapes in three days plus an extra evening, including public talks in the Woodstock Community Center on three of the evenings. I have no idea how the tapes will turn out. I’m sure there was more repetition and less specificity than we had hoped for. We discussed philosophical ideas, including some contrasting views held by different individuals though we also had much in common.
Axel did make a fairly specific prediction that there would be a major earthquake in late November or early December 1994. He based the forecast on the lunar eclipse in November and said that he could not specify the area but he did not think it was going to be in California. (Diana Rosenberg, the NY expert on “fixed” stars, had an article on quakes in the latest NCGR Member Letter and she also sees much earthquake potential in the eclipse charts and others. Diana thinks a sizable quake is possible in California but that the danger is more in the northern part of the state.)
All of the Woodstock marathoners shared ideas on the move of two outer planets into new signs. Pluto moves into Sagittarius in January 1995 though it is not established in the sign until late in the year since it retrogrades back into Scorpio for much of 1995. Uranus moves into its own sign of Aquarius in April 1995, but it also retreats to its current sign of Capricorn for much of the year. The shift of two major planets into a fire and an air sign out of earth and water is a key to continuing expansion of knowledge. The growth of new technology will accelerate even more during the approximately seven years that Uranus spends in its own sign. But, as has been written before, Uranus can also signal revolution. The PRI has just won in Mexico, maintaining their long hold on political power, but the new president, Ernesto Zedillo, faces enormous problems and the charts of the country show continuing and possibly increasing tension. Zedillo’s horoscope was published in the Spring 1994 Asteroid-World.
Pluto’s entry into Sagittarius gives us a similar message to the comet fragments which plunged into Jupiter in July. The emphasis on letter nine of our astrological alphabet highlights issues around religion, faith, ethics, values, goals. When we fail to learn the Pluto lesson of sharing power, we end with power struggles in many areas. The O.J. trial has called attention to the issue of spouse abuse as the hearing on Judge Thomas’ nomination to the Supreme Court called attention to sexual harassment. Pluto has been in its own sign since 1983, highlighting the need for cooperation between partners, people who should be peers. We have certainly not managed this Pluto period very well though we are at least talking about the issues.
As Pluto moves through Sagittarius, there is a real danger of increased religious polarization and conflict in a world which is already awash with ethnic strife. The attack on Jupiter by fragments of Shoemaker-Levy 9 is basically a repeated message though Julie Mullette suggested that the positive way to view it was as a sperm impregnating Jupiter with cosmic creativity. As always with astrology, the sky displays the relevant principles in any given space-time, the “state of the cosmic mind.” Humans express those principles in many different details ranging from magnificent to terrible depending on our insight and choices.
Several of the Woodstock participants noted historical data when similar astrological patterns had been present. Jeanne Mosier said that during the 2 to 3 year periods when Saturn had gone through Pisces there had typically been important legislation to improve social welfare. The cliffhangers in the U.S. during the current passage of Saturn through Pisces include the pending crime bill and health reform. Whether either piece of legislation will really benefit most people is an open question. Julie described the creative literary and other activity which was happening during several past periods when Uranus and Neptune were conjunct. I connected the Uranus-Neptune conjunction in 1823 with the numerous revolutions in Latin America. Most of the participants in our “free-for-all” agreed that humanity was headed for major changes in the next ten to fifteen years, and given the general level of consciousness (or lack of it), it is unfortunately possible that things will change for the worse before they get better.
I think that all of us agreed that the major changes would involve human activities including changes in consciousness and beliefs rather than the geological changes which are being predicted by many psychics who are basically imitating Edgar Cayce. As I have written before, I think that the psychics have created their geological crises on the astral level and can’t tell what is purely a mental creation and what is a possible physical future on the earth. One of my hopes (and I’m sure the hope of many others) is that we will soon see the death of materialism as a philosophy. Most people find it very difficult to conceive of the world in any way other than their normal view, so when paradigms (world views) change, the elder leaders of the former paradigm eventually die and younger leaders take over who are comfortable with the new world view. I think that the belief that ultimate reality is composed of meaningless physical matter-energy is waning. Increasing numbers of scientists are investigating reality as meaningful information rather than as meaningless particles operating according to the laws of probability.
Dorothy Oja was one of the group who emphasized the probability of changes in basic beliefs and values, and saw the O.J. case as part of the wake-up call for us to question how we choose heroes. Our famous “war on drugs” as well as the pending crime bill point to major issues in the U.S. system of law and justice which are clearly related to the Jupiter principle. The unworkable “three strikes and you’re out” law which was recently passed in California is already failing. Though it was supposed to apply to violent criminals, the bill was so badly written that it can jail a man for life for smoking a single marijuana cigarette or for stealing a pizza if he already has a record. One result is a refusal to plea bargain so the already over-loaded court docket will become truly insane.
One of the most interesting presentations at Woodstock was made by Richard Mogey who described the work of Wheeler, a Midwestern researcher and historian. Wheeler suggested that history showed repeated cycles with four stages. If my notes are right, a warm-wet climate shifts to a warm-dry period, then to a cold-wet, and finally to a cold-dry, and then the cycle repeats. Each of the climatic periods is linked to human activities. Theoretically, the warm-wet time is good for food production so there is less need for competition and society experiences a kind of renaissance. The next warm-wet time is due in about 2018. Prior to that time, Mogey expects conditions in the world to be very turbulent. If the Barycenter theory is accurate, the next ten to fifteen years will see more earthquakes and volcanoes and the latter will produce increased cold, contrary to the greenhouse predictions. I have written previously about the Barycenter (center of mass in the solar system) reversing its rotation about the center of the Sun. The shift occurs about every 171 years and the effects last for a few years.
Jacob Schwartz shares my love of asteroids, so we swapped some of our favorite tales. A couple of local astrologers also joined our Woodstock party for part of the sessions. David Arner is a local musician and professor of music in a near-by college. He connected the planetary panorama to the history of music so, of course, he expects new developments in that area. The marathon was certainly a novel experience for all of us, and Julie has already suggested that we might do it again. If so, I will keep you posted.
Maritha and I will be teaching our annual astrology intensive at the Feathered Pipe ranch near Helena, MT in early September so it will be over before you receive this issue of The Mutable Dilemma. However, you might still have time to make it to the Vision 94 conference in Del Mar, CA, just north of San Diego. It will be held from September 29 through October 2, 1994. There will be lots of speakers including Mark, Maritha, and me. For more information, telephone Angela Wright (714) 662-1612.
I am scheduled for one talk in Santa Monica which is just west of L.A. on December 4, 1994. It will be at the New Age Bible & Philosophy Center at 1139 Lincoln Blvd. at 11 A.M. The topic will be “Astrology Looks at the Millennium.”
There is plenty of time to plan for the big show—UAC ‘95 which will be held from April 13 to 18, 1995. The United Astrology Congress is cosponsored by ISAR, NCGR, and AFAN and held in every third year, normally on the Easter weekend. UAC ‘95 will be in Monterey, CA, and we expect around 1500 astrologers to be there having a wonderful time! For more information, write to us or to any of the sponsoring organizations.
I hope that the balance of the year is good to all of you.